The conflicting ideologies of both nations caused them both to mistrust and be suspicious of each other and the react to the actions of each other. These actions and reactions can be categorised into three time periods, 1917-39; World War Two and post 1945, when most historians would agree that the Cold War actually started.
After the October Revolution of 1917, and the USA's failed attempt to crush it, US-Soviet relations were non-existent. It wasn't until 1933 that there were formal diplomatic relations between the two states but these relations were strained due to Stalin's method of government. The first Soviet action to arouse suspicion came in August 1939 in the form of the Nazi- Soviet past. The US saw this as the work of two dictators with similar ideals and methods and was automatically suspicious of Stalin's intentions. Therefore it can be argued that in the years 1917-39 the Soviets could be deemed as being more responsible for long-term causes and suspicious behaviour i.e. the Nazi-Soviet pact.
World War Two saw the Communist USSR and the Capitalist USA as allies against Hitler, however, this was more an alliance of convenience and there were still tensions between the two. The two sides disagreed about the opening of a second front against Germany. Stalin wanted the USA and Britain to open a western front to alleviate the pressure on the Soviet Army in the East but repeated delay in Anglo-American plans to invade German occupied France angered Stalin and caused mistrust. This led Stalin to fear that the Nazi's would secure a peace deal with the British and Americans and turn all their forces on to Russia. Furthermore, Stalin's suspicions of the US were increased when Roosevelt chose not to inform the Soviets, a supposed ally, about US progress in the development of an atom bomb. Stalin knew he had been denied this knowledge because a team of Russian spies had infiltrated the group of American scientists creating the bomb. Therefore it can be concluded that during the Second World War, the United States played a bigger role than the Soviets in the creation of further suspicion with actions such as the delayed opening of the second front.
Post - war USSR and post-war USA were two very different countries. It was known that the War had brought America out of the Great Depression and due to the atom bomb, a tragic number of American lives had not been lost. However, in the Soviet Union it was a very different situation. 15 million soldiers and 10 million civilians had died. 1,700 towns, 31,000 factories and 100,000 state farms had been destroyed. Therefore American and Soviet peace-time aims were radically different. Roosevelt's aims centred around promoting international peace and co-operation through democracy and free trade whereas Stalin's principal concern was Soviet security and protection from yet another western invasion. From Stalin's point of view it was essential that the sates forming Russia's buffer zone should be Communist. Therefore the American programme for free elections and an 'Open Door' was not acceptable in Eastern Europe on security grounds. The refusal of the Soviets to participate in a global economic system increased the probability of a separate economic bloc in Eastern Europe under Soviet leadership.
Another area of conflict was the power vacuum left after Germany had been defeated. At Yalta it was decided that Germany would be divided into four zones, one each for the British, French, USA and USSR. The co-occupation of Germany by both the USA and USSR was a real test of their ability to co-operate. Unsurprisingly, they did run into difficulties. The Soviets were treating their zone as an independent economic unit whose sole purpose of existence was for their economic advantage. German factories, for example, were taken apart and shifted to the USSR. Each side had interpreted the agreements on Germany differently and perhaps the difficulty in interpreting and implementing agreements was a significant cause of the Cold War.
By 1946, the US-Soviet divide was clear and Churchill summed it up by calling it the 'Iron Curtain'. Behind this curtain the Soviets were building a Communist empire which was hostile to the West. The American Clifford-Elsey Report summarised the USA's thoughts on the Soviets and blamed ideology and not the need for security as the driving force behind Soviet foreign policy. They believed that the Russians were motivated by the 'Marxian theory of ultimate destruction of Capitalist states by Communist states.' To the Soviets, the picture was quite different. The Western Allies were promoting the revival of the Soviets war enemy and saw West Germany as hostile to the Soviet Union.
By analysing the events from 1917 onwards it can be argued that the Cold War was not started by one country-the USA or USSR- but by the accumulation of mistrust and suspicion between both. The Americans misinterpreted Stalin's protectionist actions for expansionist ones and the Soviets felt that US foreign policy was aggressive and undermined Soviet security which therefore provoked the USSR into taking further protective measures which the USA saw as aggressive and expansionist. This resulted in a vicious circle of action and reaction which was ultimately due to the deep mistrust and suspicion caused by the conflicting ideologies of Communism and Capitalism.
